Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 1:59 pm

for the last few years I have put an electric fence around my sweet corn to keep the coons out. I run one wire 6 inches above the ground and another one 6 inches above that, and it has always done quite well. My ground rod is driven 3+ feet deep in a fairly wet area where I have been watering tomatoes and green beans, but the rest of the ground is extremely dry and I am wondering if the fence will stop the raccoons due to not enough moisture for them to get a good ground themselves. What are your thoughts.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:09 pm

John, reach down and touch the fence. If it gets you, it will get them.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:28 pm

John, On our electric horse fence the top and bottom wires are hot while the middle is the ground. If the horse leans into the top and middle, or middle and bottom, they get zapped. Could you run a 3rd wire in the middle and do the same? Then ground conduction wouldn't matter.

Bob

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:32 pm

A neighboring farmer told me that he didn't bother with electric fencers. Just run the live wire through a light bulb, to the fence.

So I did just that. We had about 10 heifers that were within a few weeks of calving. Ran a wire around a couple acres right near the house, so we could easily watch them.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:35 pm

Bob McCarty wrote:John, On our electric horse fence the top and bottom wires are hot while the middle is the ground. If the horse leans into the top and middle, or middle and bottom, they get zapped. Could you run a 3rd wire in the middle and do the same? Then ground conduction wouldn't matter.

Bob

Bob's got a good idea. Will be a challenge, because the wires have to be closer together, than with large animals.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 3:48 pm

Dale Shaw wrote:John, reach down and touch the fence. If it gets you, it will get them.

I don't want to know bad enough to test it that way, nor do I want to eliminate wife with the direct connection, she is too good a cook.

Bob McCarty wrote:John, On our electric horse fence the top and bottom wires are hot while the middle is the ground. If the horse leans into the top and middle, or middle and bottom, they get zapped. Could you run a 3rd wire in the middle and do the same? Then ground conduction wouldn't matter.

Bob

That is a possibility. If the coons start getting into corn I will try it. Will be a little tough when dealing with something like coons, but may have to go that way.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 3:58 pm

John if you've ever been zapped (I guess we all have.) you might enjoy this...

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 5:33 pm

John, I don't think you will have a problem. I check to make sure ours is running with a circut tester with the one end only pushed an inch or so in the ground. It isn't an especially hot one either. Meant for dogs. I'd like to find a 1950's era international weed chopper fence charger. Those packed a decent whollop. Since May 1st we have trapped 12, I've shot three walking accross the yard and one out of a tree. The deer are eating the tomatoes and the zuchinni, done a little damage to the corn. So dry animals are rading gardens. Vern

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:19 pm

After reading Bob McCartys comments about the horses I thought it over and just tied another wire to the ground rod and laid it on the ground all the way around the fence. I figure there is a good possibility that a coon will be touching it when he crosses the fence. My winter squash are growing over into the corn rows on one side, and I just laid the ground wire in the vines just in front of fence wire. Those poor squash vines have taken an awful beating with me wading through them with my big clodhoppers about 6 times today.

I am a retired electronics technician, but when I started back in the late 60s low voltage circuits were powered by 90 to 120 volt supplies, not 5.1. Working on the old Motorola commercial 2 ways, getting hit by 600 to 900 volts was not unusual. Even got nailed by the 35,000 volt circuit on an old color tv once. Wow, that hurt. I had one of the old 2 cell penlights in my hand and hit it so hard on the wall coming out of there that the light shone at a 45 degree angle through the little focused bulb after that.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:32 pm

John *.?-!.* cub owner wrote:. . . and hit it so hard on the wall coming out of there that the light shone at a 45 degree angle through the little focused bulb after that.

You trying to tell us you bent the light beam?

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:19 pm

Jim Becker wrote:

John *.?-!.* cub owner wrote:. . . and hit it so hard on the wall coming out of there that the light shone at a 45 degree angle through the little focused bulb after that.

You trying to tell us you bent the light beam?

and my thinking too. it was the ideal place for it to happen, I was working on my family Doctor's tv.

Re: Will it work?

Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:17 pm

Well apparently it worked. we harvested corn today with no evidence of coon damage, and afterwards I took down the fence. While taking it down I noticed some places where the ground was scuffed up, apparently where the coons had tried it, but the fence with extra ground wire discouraged them.